The world’s greatest shrine to pure scientific curiosity hides its glories from the casual visitor. On the surface Cern, the European centre for particle physics, is built in the apologetic drab-lab style typical of a public research laboratory anxious to reassure taxpayers that no money has been wasted on ostentatious display. My first reaction is that the scenery of the Swiss-French borders, from the Jura foothills to Alpine peaks, deserves something better – and so does Cern’s quest to understand the secrets of the universe.

When I drop 100m beneath the surface in a high-speed lift, however, a spectacularly colourful new world opens up. Giant magnets in red and yellow, green and blue stand ready to guide two beams of protons – hydrogen nuclei – round a 27km underground race track. At four “collision points”, where the protons will smash together at almost the speed of light, huge multicoloured flowers seem to blossom on the beam lines. These are 25m– high “detectors”, designed to make sense of the myriad subatomic particles that will fly off in all directions when the protons annihilate one another. Cern scientists hope fervently that the flight patterns will reveal the existence of previously unknown particles and forces, maybe even dimensions.